The impact of product category knowledge on consumer use of extrinsic cues – A study involving agrifood products

In this paper, we analyse the importance of consumer knowledge and its moderating effect on the use of extrinsic cues to make product choices within the white asparagus category. Our experimental design uses 18 screens showing options made from different combinations of brand, origin and price cues. The design uses three knowledge measures: experience in the product category, subjective knowledge and objective knowledge. The results are analysed by means of a multinomial logit model, enabling us to assess the importance of the various cues and interactions between these and knowledge. The results show that knowledge has different effects on the perceived importance of brand and origin. Among other effects, we show that less experienced consumers tend to rely more on origin labels, while the more experienced focus predominantly on brands.